Rolynn Anderson: FEAR LAND

If you’re a KaT regular, you’ll recognize this week’s guest. We’ve hosted her three times and are delighted she’s back today for a spirited discussion about her newest release. Welcome Rolynn Anderson!

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I’m tickled to be back on Kiss and Thrill with you, Sarah. You’ve hosted coming out parties for three of my romantic suspense novels (LAST RESORT, SWOON and LIE CATCHERS). Now it’s FEAR LAND, my fifth published novel. I am giving a portion of each sale of FEAR LAND to the Brain Research Foundation (TheBRF.org)

Sarah: Given the story line, that is a truly wonderful gift! Tell us about your journey to write FEAR LAND.

Rolynn: Trauma is the topic, the many shades of anxiety. Most of us experience a trauma or two in our lifetimes, suffering symptoms from mild depression and a few nightmares to full-blown post traumatic stress. My own response to a trauma interested me, but I also wanted to know more about PTSD and high suicide rates among soldiers. I wondered if some children were born anxious. Were all forms of trauma curable?

Sarah: Wow, that’s fascinating, but it kind of sounds like a thesis, not a suspense novel.

Rolynn: I know! We novel writers are researchers at heart. I like to learn and teach with each novel I write, as well. I think the reader will learn a lot about trauma in my novel, but I hope the plot makes it a page-turner.

Sarah: Start with the hero, heroine, so we know we’re looking at a fiction piece.

Rolynn:Yes, ma’am! My heroine, Tally Rosella, is a child psychiatrist who has finished one study of anxious kids in Washington State and will begin a second study at a big California college. Her new neighbor, Cole Messer, an Army Major who will teach ROTC at the college, is good at hiding the effects of combat trauma. He’s single-parenting a highly anxious boy; Cole wants to enroll his son into Tally’s new study.

Sarah: Ah, a couple with conflict, but clearly Tally’s the strong one, here.

Rolynn: Nope. Now I introduce a modest paranormal feature. You see, Tally hears mind-rants from adults who have strong (usually negative) feelings toward her. These men and women might be perfectly polite, even flirty with her, but their minds are ranting nasty tunes.

Sarah: Ooo, I wish I had that feature! That must make her a powerful psychiatrist.

Rolynn: You’d think so. She couldn’t take on a patient who rants at her, because it interferes with her objectivity. That’s why she works with kids. Their minds don’t yell at her.

Sarah: Now add the suspense…

Rolynn: I’ll avoid spoilers here. Bottom line: Tally encounters devious colleagues, spurring her on to ‘use’ her elementary mind-reading skill. Trouble is, evil people have a way of taking advantage of good folks, and soon, Tally, Cole and Cole’s son are in danger.

Sarah: Yep! Now we’ve got the suspense. Where can we pick up this mystery?

BTW, LIE CATCHERS comes out in re-release through Amazon Encore today! And for my other books and events, check out my website.

Here’s the blurb on FEAR LAND:

Tally Rosella, an acclaimed psychiatrist who helps children fraught with anxiety, avoids adults because their brains rant at her. But the chance to start a second child study and connect her findings to PTSD, sets her squarely among devious colleagues at a big California university.

Army Major Cole Messer, Tally’s new neighbor, won’t admit that trauma from combat tours in Afghanistan, destroyed his marriage and hampered his ability to lead. As a teacher of college ROTC and single parent, he’s focused on enrolling his highly anxious son in Tally’s study and getting back to active duty.

Someone is dead set against Tally’s presence at the university, and blowback from her battles with co-workers put Cole and his son in jeopardy. Watch what happens when people struggling with shades of anxiety collide with corrupt, revengeful foes.

Here’s today’s question: How astute are you at ‘mind reading?’ Whose mind would you like to read better…and why? Commenters are entered into a giveaway of an e-copy of FEAR LAND!

How did funeral planning morph into crime-solving? Ask free-lance embalmer Trudy Solomon or Pete McDonald, a blind forensic investigator. They’re solving mysteries of the deceased for their pregnant boss, Jan Keller, while her journalist husband, Roman, is benched by a ten million dollar defamation suit.

A dead client goes missing, and investigating his disappearance forces Trudy and Pete to confront their fiercely independent styles. When danger stalks them, will they blend brains, brawn and belief in one another?

I LOVE THIS COVER!!!

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About Sarah Andre

Romantic Suspense That Keeps You Up All Night!
I live in sunny FL, love daydreaming, reading and chocolate. I write in the wee hours of the morning before my helpless hubby and 2 male Pomeranian pups awaken with their demands. :) My debut LOCKED, LOADED and LYING is available now.

I can’t read minds but I am good at intuiting how other people are feeling. Not sure why that is, maybe because I’m an INFJ, but I can walk into a room and if I’m really paying attention, I can figure out the mood of each person and how to respond.
Still wish I could read minds, though. 🙂

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE! I’m thrilled to be drinking my first cup of coffee with my K & T friends. You’ve helped me launch many a novel…thanks Sarah and the rest of you for pushing out my newest baby, FEAR LAND.

Sharon, your comment on ‘reading a room’…it says a lot about you…the willingness to pay attention to others – definitely INFJ. I’m curious about what you do when they are antagonistic. Do you address that emotion or stay away from them?

Congratulations on another release, Rolynn, and I can say- from reading all of your novels, that you will never be the author who ‘writes the same thing but just changes the character names.’ FEAR LAND is a huge change from LIE CATCHERS, which was very different than your Funeral Planner series! Good for you.

I can’t say I read minds, but I do have a lot of odd premonitions. Here are 2 that happened this week: walking my dogs and out of the blue thinking, ‘wouldn’t it be weird if there was a snake in the grass’ and within a minute or so we spotted one. I couldn’t have subliminally seen it because we hadn’t turned the corner.

And a few days ago, again- just a random thought: remembering when one of my dogs had a severe GI infection last year. Well, yesterday we got a call from the vet that he had the infection again. He has no symptoms, there’s no reason for me to have thought it’d reoccurred.

That’s really interesting, Sarah, but you’ve always been specially attuned to your dogs. How good are you at ‘reading’ your husband’s mind? I wish I were better with mine…he’s one of those stoic Norwegians. Uff Da!

I really enjoyed Fear Land, Rolynn. You had me guessing the villain right until the reveal. Lots of good twists. I’m not sure I’d like to have Tally’s ability. I don’t want to know what people really think. But it makes for a great story.

Oh, Diane, you made my heart sing this morning. I’m thrilled I kept you guessing and I hope I got things right about trauma in Fear Land. Hard work behind this book, for sure. Thanks for your compliments!

I can’t read minds, but it would be interesting. My kids and grandkids would tell you I can. It’s just that I can read their body language so well and draw the truth out. I know them so well. They fear me. bwahaha

Oh, this is great news, Sandra. All you have to do is give them ‘the look’ and they think you know their innermost secrets. I was an English Teacher and a High School Principal…I made a point of using that look with all 1000 of my students! It’s been perfected over time 🙂

Thanks for the compliment on the post, Diana. One of my theories about men…they don’t smile as much as we do. That closed-mouth look baffles me. My theory is cats are similar. Because they keep their mouths closes (unlike dogs), they seem to have more going on in their minds…and appear more judgmental. Maybe we wouldn’t want to know what they’re thinking 🙂

Hi Rolynn! Welcome back to Kiss and Thrill! You’re one busy lady, but all of your projects sound so exciting I’m glad you found the time to get them done. I especially love your focus on anxious children and PTSD.

I’m not a mind reader but I am quite sensitive to visual cues, body language, and verbal clues that give away what a person might be thinking instead of saying.

But if I were a true mind reader I wouldn’t care about reading any person’s mind. I’d want to know what my pets were thinking!

Rolynn, I’m so sorry I couldn’t check in yesterday. I was running like crazy all day. Fear Land sounds fascinating! Happy release week. 🙂

I like to think I can “read” people, and I definitely find myself ascribing all sorts of motivations to their behavior–whether I’m right or not. I think as writers we tend to be the kind of people who pay attention to others on a deeper level instinctually. Doesn’t mean I always know how to respond to them…

Gwen, so glad to hear from you…don’t worry about being late. In this crazy business, showing up is everything! Good point about whether or not to respond to our inclinations about people. I’ve learned through lots of travel, that Americans are much more forward than other nationalities. I have to hold myself back in a foreign country, so I don’t seem intrusive. My point is, sometimes it’s hard to tell whether or not to respond to people, because in some cultures, it’s better to stand back. I even heard that dinner conversation topics are often determined by culture…talking about the weather is about as deep as it can get in some cultures…for other groups, argument is the height of a good dinner together. Who knew?